Writing Workshop Peer Editing

Hi Amelia,

 First off, I'd say it depends on the grade how peer editing might look.  In the primary grade band, I might have learning partners with a strong and weaker model share their writing on the carpet with two questions in mind: "Does it make sense?" and "Can more detail be added?"  That's straight out of the Lucy Calkins' Units of Study.  However, I wouldn't let this happen with pencils unless the partnerships are homogeneous writing partners.  We want to teach the writer not the piece.  The point isn't to make the piece perfect or better, but to teach strategies and skills to the writer. 

 I think something similar can happen in intermediate grades.  It's important that students feel safe and aren't corrected too much by their peer or you.  We only want to encourage them to fix the errors that are within their reach.  Otherwise, lower students tend to build a lot of resistance against writing, which is very counterproductive, especially around spelling.  I believe word work is the time to push students. 

One way to improve writing that I believe isn't focused on enough in the Units of Study is providing students with time to orally rehearse stories and story-tell.  This will go far to improve their stories.  But it should happen before they write or before and during drafting.  Reading stories to someone can also be a great way to think of more important details.  The share time whole class or in partners allows a time to ask questions that give ideas for more interesting detail too.  This must be modeled extensively in whole group before partners will be able to do so well, or if they have previous experience.

Good luck!